Passengers were facing significant delays following a technical issue with the air traffic control system at Sydney Airport on Monday morning. Airservices Australia, the state-owned provider of Australia’s air traffic control system, confirmed that a technical issue had occurred at Sydney Airport in a tweet from its official account at 07.30 Sydney time. At 09.20 Airservices Australia announced the issue had been addressed and that it was working to resume normal operations and clear a backlog of flights. Sydney Airport also said the issue “has now been resolved.” Australian carrier Qantas Airlines said in a statement that the air traffic control system issue had caused “significant delays at Sydney Airport affecting all airlines.”<br/>
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The first airline flights to hurricane-battered Puerto Rico arrived Friday, but difficult conditions at the island's main airport caused airlines to scale back plans for more flights over the weekend. Two American Airlines planes from Miami and one from Philadelphia arrived at San Juan's Luis Munoz Marin International Airport Friday morning. The flights carried relief supplies and federal airport screeners to help staff security checkpoints at the airport, an airline spokesman said. Another plane got halfway to Puerto Rico before returning to Miami because the San Juan airport couldn't handle another plane. President Donald Trump tweeted thanks to American and CEO Doug Parker "for all of the help you have given to the U.S. with Hurricane flights. Fantastic job!" Two JetBlue Airways planes with relief supplies — one of them also carrying New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo — also landed on the island, a JetBlue spokesman said. American planned a single round trip from Philadelphia on Saturday and again Sunday, but was not yet selling seats on those flights by Friday afternoon. Delta Air Lines said it would fly relief workers and supplies from Atlanta on a single flight Saturday and take passengers off the island on the return trip while canceling other flights. It plans to operate a single round trip on Sunday.<br/>
A damaged pipeline that resulted in a fuel shortage across New Zealand and grounded hundreds of flights was restarted on Sunday after repairs were completed, officials said. Jet fuel from the Marsden Point Oil Refinery began to arrive at Auckland’s Wiri Oil Terminal on Sunday morning, and is expected to reach Auckland Airport by Tuesday, Energy and Resources Minister Judith Collins said. “Airlines are continuing to operate their networks on the 50 percent fuel allocation from Auckland, with increasing stability and minimal disruption to passengers,” Collins said in a statement. “The number of flight cancellations has been steadily decreasing.” Five international flights were canceled on Saturday as the country’s army trucked fuel to Auckland airport and New Zealanders went to the polls for a general election. Two more international flights are expected to be canceled on Sunday. The New Zealand government set up a commission to oversee the response to the crisis just days before Saturday’s poll, which has left the ruling National Party and opposition Labour Party in a position of having to lobby the nationalist New Zealand First party to form a coalition government.<br/>
The government is preparing nine airports to redirect airplanes heading to I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport on the resort island of Bali, should the airport be closed in the event of a Mount Agung eruption. The nine airports are Juanda Airport in Surabaya, Blimbingsari Airport in Banyuwangi, Adi Sumarmo Airport in Surakarta, Lombok Airport in West Nusa Tenggara, Komodo Airport Labuan Bajo, Hassanudin Airport in Makassar and Sepinggan Airport in Balikpapan, Sam Ratulangi Airport in Manado and Pattimura Airport in Ambon. “It is part of our mitigation plan,” said Transportation Ministry’s air transportation director general Agus Santoso during a coordination meeting at Emergency Operation Center (EOC) at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport on Sunday.<br/>